Hospital bed



Filed March 20, 1963 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 In I u 4u WITNESS BY Y' @if Q @f f (lA/L7 5 Mam/29.

ATTORNEY @man i March 21, 1967 W. R. BLACK HOSPITAL BED 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed March 20, 1963 INVENTOR WITNESS BY fd w w ATTORNEY AJM/LY 5 @www United States Patent Office 3,309,717 Patented Mar. 21, 1967 3,309,717 HOSPITAL BED Warren R. Black, Grand Rapids, Mich., assignor to American Seating Company, Grand Rapids, Mich., a corporation of New Jersey Filed Mar. 20, 1963, Ser. No. 266,586 2 Claims. (Cl. 5-68) This application is a continuation-impart of my copending application Ser. No. 108,495 filed May 8, 1961, now Patent No. 3,174,161 and entitled, Hospital Bed.

The present invention relates to beds and more particularly to hospital beds.

The primary objects of the invention are to provide a hospital bed having a low footboard thus making a bed patients feet and lower legs more readily accessible to a doctor, nurse or other attendant, and thus also facilitating making the bed; to provide such a bed which can be elongated to accommodate patients of unusually great height; to provide a bed which can be shortened so as to t into small elevators; and in general to provide a bed which is etlicient in use, reasonably economical in manufacture and attractive in appearance.

An illustrative embodiment of the invention is shown in the accompanying drawing, wherein:

FIGURE l is a side elevational view of a hospital bed, in normal prone position;

FIGURE 2 is a side elevational view of the bed in elongated condition to accommodate a tall patient;

FIGURE 3 is a side elevational view of the bed with the head and knee sections in elevated positions;

FIGURE 4 is a fragmentary top plan view of the footboard in lowered horizontal position and showing the footboards connections to the foot spring section of the bed;

FIGURE 5 is a fragmentary sectional view of the same taken on line 5 5 of FIGURE 4;

FIGURE 6 is a fragmentary side elevational view of parts at the foot end of the bed, the footboard being here shown in a raised vertical position;

FIGURE 7 is a similar View showing the footboard in a shifted position preparatory to swinging it forwardlydownwardly to horizontal position;

FIGURE 8 is a similar side elevational view showing the footboard in lowered horizontal position; and

FIGURE 9 is a sectional view of the footboard in raised vertical position, the plane of section being indicated by line 9 9 of FIGURE 4.

Referring now in detail to these drawings, the bed there shown generally comprises a base frame 10 mounted on pedestals 11 which are in turn mounted on caster trucks 12. A headboard 13 is mounted at the head end of the base frame 10. The mattress-supporting springs of the bed comprise a seat spring section 14 tixedly mounted on the base frame 10, a head spring section 15 pivotally connected at its forward end to the rearward end of the seat spring section 14, and a knee assembly including a thigh spring section 16 pivotally connected at its rearward end to the forward end of the seat spring section and a foot spring section 17 pivotally connected at its rearward end to the forward end of the thigh spring section 15.

The head section 15 and the knee assembly are movable to their positions seen in FIGURE 3 by mechanism shown and described in my copending -application above identied. The head section is movable to a position of rearward-upward inclination. The knee assembly is movable as shown to an elevated position wherein the thigh section 16 and foot section 17 form a downwardly divergent angle. It will be noted that the base frame 10 is considerably shorter than the combined mattress-supporting spring sections, so that when the knee section is horizontal as seen in FIGURE 1 the foot spring section 17 extends beyond the foot end of the base frame 10 a substantial distance, thus making a full-length bed. However when the knee assembly is elevated as seen in FIGURE 3, the foot spring section 17 is drawn entirely within the contines of the base frame 10. The over-all length of the bed is thus considerably shortened, and by this arrangement the bed can be accommodated by the smallest standard hospital elevator.

A unique feature of the invention resides in the low footboard 18 which provides ready access to the patient from the foot of the bed. The footboard is shown in considerable detail in FIGURES 4-9. It comprises a boxlike structure fabricated of sheet metal, the outer panel 19 of which is desirably vinyl-clad to match the side and end panels and the headboard of the bed, and a decorative molding 2i) of aluminum or the like is applied around the top and sides of the footboard. The footboard 18 is mounted on the foot spring section 17 of the bed so that it moves with said section up and down and to inclined positions. The inside opposite ends of the footboard have brackets 21 secured thereto as by welding and provided with slots 22 through which pass pins 23 which also pass through brackets 24 on the foot spring section 17. (Pins 23 and brackets 24 are not shown in FIGURE 9, which view shows only the footboard per se.) The pin 23 shown at the left in FIGURE 4 and 5 is welded to the adjacent bracket 24, whereas the pin 23 shown at the right is threaded to receive a nut 25 whereby these parts are secured in assembly.

By reason of the pin and slot connections between the footboard 1S and the foot spring section 17 described above the footboard may be lifted from its normal position seen in FIGURE 6 to its position seen in FIGURE 7, and then swung forwardly-downwardly to a horizontal position as seen in FIGURE S. Mattress-stops 26 pivotally mounted at 27 .in the outer end of the footboard, may then be swung upwardly through slots 28 in the footboard, whereupon the mattress 29 supported on the spring sections may be slid forwardly against the mattress-stops 26 and a mattress extension 30 (see FIGURE 2) may be added at the head end of the bed. The bed may thus be extended by about 6 inches to accommodate patients of unusual height. Spring clips 31 are provided in the footboard for retaining the mattress-stops 26 when the latter are not in use.

It will thus be seen that the invention provides a hospital bed with a low pivoted footboard for increased accessibility and a bed which can be lengthened to accommodate tall persons or shortened to lit into small elevators. While but one specific embodiment of the invention has been herein shown and described it will be understood that numerous details thereof may be altered or omitted without departing from the spirit of the invention as dened by the following claims.

I claim:

1. In a bed: a base frame; mattress-supporting spring sections mounted on the base frame and including a foot spring section; a low footboard mounted on the foot spring section for swinging movement between 4a position extending perpendicularly upwardly from said foot spring section and a position of alignment with said foot spring section; and mattress-stops pivotally mounted in the outer end of the footboard and swingable from positions within the footboard to positions extending perpendicularly upwardly v from the footboard when said footboard is in its position of alignment with said foot spring section, said mattressstops serving as abutments for a mattress.

2. A bed according to claim 1 characterized by having a headboard mounted on the head end of the base frame, a mattress supported on said spring sections and extending from the headboard to the footboard when the latter is References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 200,865 3/1878 Iske 5-179 555,859 3/1896 Hall 5-53 7/1902 Fox 5-53 7/1907 Bowling 5-53 12/1913 Tracy 5-53 12/1952 MacNeny 5-183 11/1961 Breach 5-68 5/1963 Briggs et al 5-68 FOREIGN PATENTS 12/1929 France.

3/1886 Great Britain.

CASMIR A. NUNBERG, Primary Examiner.

FRANK B. SHERRY, Examiner. 

1. IN A BED: A BASE FRAME; MATTRESS-SUPPORTING SPRING SECTIONS MOUNTED ON THE BASE FRAME AND INCLUDING A FOOT SPRING SECTION; A LOW FOOTBOARD MOUNTED ON THE FOOT SPRING SECTION FOR SWINGING MOVEMENT BETWEEN A POSITION EXTENDING PERPENDICULARLY UPWARDLY FROM SAID FOOT SPRING SECTION AND A POSITION OF ALIGNMENT WITH SAID FOOT SPRING SECTION; AND MATTRESS-STOPS PIVOTALLY MOUNTED IN THE OUTER END OF THE FOOTBOARD AND SWINGABLE FROM POSITIONS WITHIN THE FOOTBOARD TO POSITIONS EXTENDING PERPENDICULARLY UPWARDLY FROM THE FOOTBOARD WHEN SAID FOOTBOARD IS IN ITS POSITION OF ALIGNMENT WITH SAID FOOT SPRING SECTION, SAID MATTRESSSTOPS SERVING AS ABUTMENTS FOR A MATTRESS. 